About us

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER CONCEPT OVERVIEW

Objective:
Prepare and nurture entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses with ethical values.

Background:
Small to medium sized enterprises (SME’s) are the economic engine of a nation. Many developing nations lack a robust SME sector. Without SME’s, the nation will suffer high unemployment and low GDP per capita. The business development center (BDC) is designed to incubate and nurture SME development. The BDC must offer a portfolio of services, in addition to training, in order to substitute for the missing pieces of business infrastructure in a developing economy.

Target audience:
Potential entrepreneurs and existing small business owners/operators who are open to learning business based on ethical values.

Elements of a BDC:

Training—basic entrepreneurship for start ups, mini-MBA for existing businesses, specialized training for growth companies. Training designed to be “just in time”—i.e., increasingly sophisticated training to meet the increasing complexity of a growing business.

Mentoring, coaching, general management consulting—to nurture start-ups and existing companies that are repositioning/repurposing.

Access/connection—network of connections to business services, such as legal, accounting, advertising & marketing, printing, IT, etc. and to government offices and gatekeepers, to the financial service industry (bankers, angel investors, private equity), and to strategic partners.

Peer mentoring—provide various models for informal and formal groups to help individuals help their peers.

Resource center—provide information and data on business issues, industry statistics, etc. and access to web-based tools for education and for improving business operations. Examples of tools—on-line marketplace, effective web presence, on-line social network for business owners.

Incubation—provide forum for brainstorming and refining business ideas; provide business services, such as space, accounting, payroll, marketing, for start-ups.
Specialized and sophisticated consulting services—connect to network of experts in IT, financial instruments and transactions, HR, Marketing, manufacturing, etc.

“Doing business in” services—help foreign companies enter the region around the BDC